My Favourite Things – April 2016

It’s time for the April edition of “My Favourite Things”. A linkup hosted by Raisa and Eirene where you post about something you enjoyed in the previous month. I meant to write my post nearly a week ago but kept forgetting! It’s finally here though.

This month is all about cross-stitch. Earlier this year I started playing Stardew Valley and one day I stumbled upon Siri’s (yes, I did join Twitch just for her channel) cross-stitch work of characters of the game and thought it looked awesome. Although pixelart is quite easy to replicate in cross stitch I never really considered that people were making cool cross-stitch work out of video game characters rather than flowers and mountains and the usual stuff that is associated with cross stitch.

Geometric squares cross stitch

I decided to look into patterns but didn’t want to start with something too difficult and I ended up on the work above. The completed work ended up being 64 squares with 8 different colours and many different patterns. While working on this I realised it might be my equivalent of adult colouring-in for relaxation and stress relief after work. I gave colouring a try and bought some pretty markers but I found it really frustrating and it sort of defeated the purpose. With cross-stitch you can’t really go outside of the lines and if you happen to stitch in the wrong spot you can just reverse what you did easily and quickly. The most frustrating thing with cross-stitch, to me, is when your needle becomes un-threaded. “that’s your home, are you too good for your home!”

I also used the time I was cross-stitching to start listening to Welcome to Night Vale again and as I got faster at stitching I was able to complete one of the squares in the same time as an episode. Night Vale is so weird and crazy and Cecil’s voice is pretty awesome and I really enjoy it but I tend to have issues concentrating on podcasts because I start reading things at the same time. I don’t have that distraction where cross-stitch is concerned.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer cross-stitch

Once I had finished the square cross-stitch I decided to try something a little more geeky and slightly more complicated (mostly where stitch counting is concerned) and went for this cute Buffy pixel/sprite work. As it turns out it’s actually a lot faster and probably easier than the other one! I currently only have Xander, Willow and Giles (no Faith or Tara, maybe I could create them myself) to go and I started on this less than a week ago.

I think what I love most about cross-stitch is that it’s a creative outlet without having to need too much artistic skill. Sure, when I start making patterns of my own I’ll need to have a bit of skill but really this is just a bunch of coloured crosses on a piece of fabric, not dissimilar to count-by-number colouring.

If you’re interested in keeping up with what I’m doing in the world of cross stitch I have 2 hashtags I’m using on Instagram: #SarahsFirstCrossStitch and #SarahStitches (strangely, there is a model who goes by the name Sarah Stitches and she also uses that hashtag, she has some nice pin-up style photos and photos of tattoos!) or you could just follow me for all updates on Instagram.

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9 thoughts on “My Favourite Things – April 2016”

Looks amazing! :) I can see why pixel art is easy to cross stitch. I remember doing it a while ago but I was still in primary school haha. I enjoyed seeing the end result and I liked to add a bit of text but I always hated that it looked ‘pixelated’. If only I knew that was actually some kind of style back then :p

It’s really not that difficult Michelle, you’d be surprised how easy it is once you know the basic stitches. The Buffy pattern wasn’t great for beginners, in the way it didn’t have many instructions and lots of colours (it’s a bit annoying, it asks you to buy a bunch of new colours for only 2 stitches) but the one with the squares is actually quite good, you even get a beginners guide on how to do most things.
All you need to start is a pattern, the colours, a hoop (optional but makes it much easier) and some cloth – most patterns will tell you the best type of material for the piece.

Hey this looks amazing and pretty colorful!I remember doing cross stitch when I was around 15 years old for a school project and I really enjoyed it! I have to agree with you that it can really be a relief to stress ;)

These look great! I briefly dabbled in cross stitching when I was a kid but I never finished anything. :’) Stitching while listening to music or podcasts is so relaxing. I should get back to my crocheting.

Niiiice! I think it makes sense for pixel art to be compatible with cross-stitching :) I lack great fine motor skills, though, and I have difficulties handling small needles, so I’ll stick to knitting XD

I agree with Kya, btw! It’d be a good idea to sell some of your creation :) If not on Etsy, maybe at a local crafts market? :3